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Melbourne - Sebastian Vettel said Ferrari's aggressive strategy on tyres probably went against him as he relinquished the lead to Nico Rosberg at the 2016 Australian GP.

The four-time world champion, who was leading at the time, elected to stay on supersoft tyres after the race was stopped on the 18th lap following Fernando Alonso's horror shunt.

During the stoppage, Mercedes rival Rosberg switched to medium tyres while Ferrari decided to keep Vettel on the supersofts.

'We went for the aggressive route'

The move meant Vettel had to come into the pits again while Rosberg made it to the finish with his set of tyres to complete an eight-second victory over Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel said after finishing in third: "We went for the aggressive route. Maybe with hindsight we could have done something else, but I don't want to blame anyone. It's a shame the other car (Kimi Raikkonen) didn't make it but it is positive.

"The team is in good shape, we know we can up our game and put pressure on these guys. You can argue the red flag didn't help us, but once it plays into our favour and then catches you out."

Vettel said Ferrari was much closer to Mercedes this year after finishing a distant second last season.